Jump to content
IGNORED

Terry Cooper : Flashback for the fans.

1960maaan

By 1960maaan
in Football Chat

Recommended Posts

Gert Mare

Gert Mare

Posted
Posted

Dragged us out of despair and breathed life back into the club. Shame he couldn't quite get us out of the third division, but he brought in his successor who took us up to the second.

Never felt so connected to the club and players like I did back in those days. 

Top man Terry. Met him not long after he was sacked when he turned out for a City v Rovers legends match at Frenchay Hospital. Spent 20 minutes after the game chatting about City with me and was a top bloke. Wished me well and said that Bristol City was a top club. 

Never forgotten that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
GrahamC

GrahamC

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, glynriley said:

One of TC's first signings I believe. Other early signings would have included Alan Crawford, Forbes Phillipson Masters and bringing Tom Ritchie back.

The season after Trevor Morgan, Howard Pritchard, Keith Curle,Bruce Halliday,Kenny Stroud, Martyn Hurst of course.

Could be wrong, it was 35 years ago!!

Proper legend mind Coops.

You are spot on, mate.

Cooper's first 3 signings were Riley, Crawford & Ritchie.

His next 2 were Peter Johnson, a left back on a season long loan from Newcastle & Forbes PM.

Along with John Shaw, himself & a bunch of kids that was all the players we had in 82/83.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
forbespm

forbespm

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

You are spot on, mate.

Cooper's first 3 signings were Riley, Crawford & Ritchie.

His next 2 were Peter Johnson, left back on loan from Newcastle & Forbes PM.

Along with John Shaw, himself & a bunch of kids that was all the players we had in 82/83.

Forbes pm! Quality player!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
glynriley

glynriley

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

You are spot on, mate.

Cooper's first 3 signings were Riley, Crawford & Ritchie.

His next 2 were Peter Johnson, a left back on a season long loan from Newcastle & Forbes PM.

Along with John Shaw, himself & a bunch of kids that was all the players we had in 82/83.

Not a bad first 3 that!! Obviously I'm a massive Glyn Riley fan but Crawford and to a lesser extent Ritchie don't get enough credit on here for me. Scored some crackers as well Crawford. One against Mansfield, I think , at Ashton Gate was a screamer. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
glynriley

glynriley

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, 1960maaan said:

After Alan Dicks, Joe Jordan,Paul Cheesley and  Kevin Mabbutt next up for Flashback for the fans treatment is Terry Cooper.
I would say our best and my personal favourite manager. Good as a player absolute legend as a manager. Putting money into the cash starved club and running himself into the ground to make us better and keep us alive. The man deserves legendary status as much as anyone , but if you're not sure watch the clip of him crying after we beat Bolton at Wembley to see just how much he cared. Seeing him bombing down the wing aged 40ish , and the story of coming on with an already torn sock so at the first tackle he could complain to the Ref about the bad tackle and show proof . Seeing him nearly dropped off of the stand at Chester when we got promoted from the old 4th division. I love the man for what he did for us. I loved that period in our history, as hard as it was , small hardcore of players and fans , I'm glad I got to see it , and him.

 

"I feel like I'm a Bristolian now"

You always will be Terry.

Thanks for posting mate, just watched after her indoors went to bed. Just as well, she'd have thought I was a right pillock getting misty eyed over that. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
City Rocker

City Rocker

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, RedM said:

I started watching City regularly in Feb '83 so TC was my first manager. We were really rock bottom back then, young kids and old men...but it was great. And yes I was on the terraces at Reading too. Terry saved Reading from being totally wrecked, what a man he truly walked on water. I would love him to be recognised. I would love to meet him and thank him for being one of the reasons I got hooked on this club.

You started watching City at a great time.* The Terry Cooper era was when the soul of this club shone brightest and the current custodians would do well to understand and recognise that.

I had a Rovers-supporting acquaintance in the mid 90s who used to have a print-out of the league table with Bristol City bottom of Division 4  blown up, laminated  and mounted on his wall. How ******* sad is that?!! The first time I saw it - in fact he took pleasure in showing it to me - I smiled warmly and declared how nostalgic that made me feel. Genuinely happy memories of that time, the Dunkirk spirit, positive atmosphere and the close affinity between the fans, team, management. This annoyed the saghead somewhat. Apparently not the response he wanted, but it was a genuine reaction on my part. Happy days.

*I started going to City when we were about to be promoted to the top flight in 1976. F'cking glory hunter. I stuck with it when things went bad though :city:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
steviestevieneville

steviestevieneville

Posted
Posted
39 minutes ago, City Rocker said:

You started watching City at a great time.* The Terry Cooper era was when the soul of this club shone brightest and the current custodians would do well to understand and recognise that.

I had a Rovers-supporting acquaintance in the mid 90s who used to have a print-out of the league table with Bristol City bottom of Division 4  blown up, laminated  and mounted on his wall. How ******* sad is that?!! The first time I saw it - in fact he took pleasure in showing it to me - I smiled warmly and declared how nostalgic that made me feel. Genuinely happy memories of that time, the Dunkirk spirit, positive atmosphere and the close affinity between the fans, team, management. This annoyed the saghead somewhat. Apparently not the response he wanted, but it was a genuine reaction on my part. Happy days.

*I started going to City when we were about to be promoted to the top flight in 1976. F'cking glory hunter. I stuck with it when things went bad though :city:

Not enough likes available for that first paragraph :clap:

it needs to be remembered , like it or not it was a huge event in our history . 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lanterne Rouge

Lanterne Rouge

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, glynriley said:

Not a bad first 3 that!! Obviously I'm a massive Glyn Riley fan but Crawford and to a lesser extent Ritchie don't get enough credit on here for me. Scored some crackers as well Crawford. One against Mansfield, I think , at Ashton Gate was a screamer. 

I remember him banging in a hat trick at home to Torquay. We beat them 5 - 0 IIRC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DaveInSA

DaveInSA

Posted
Posted

Aaaah the glory days....

...I can vividly remember starting my BCFC journey in 82-83. My Uncle started taking me and my brother. He'd just had a stroke and he'd park on a double yellow. We'd buy our tickets and head up to the Dolman - a bit slowly because his left side was pretty paralysed. On the odd occasion we'd get taken into the East End by our cousin. Urine on the terraces, beer everywhere, dark, dingy and the atmosphere in there was awesome.

4 to 5 thousand in that massive arena, they were dark days, but also great days. Andy Llewyellyn and Rob Newman at the back were absolute stalwarts for this club, with John Shaw. And obviously Walshy and Riley were my heroes. 

The life long love affair started right there. I still don't understand (and I guess never will) how you can claim to be a fan of a club if you've never, ever been to a game. How much fun can it be being a Man Utd fan? Winning a virtual guarantee (well I guess the last couple of years haven't been so lekker) every *******g week. No low points of relegations, disappointments, losing games on paper you should win easily and vice versa.

I guess this is why we are Bristol City. Always believing and hoping that we'll start to punch above our weight. Maybe, just maybe we're on the verge of something great. I'll reserve judgement though, because I've been there many times following this club.

I'm heading back to the UK after 15 years in South Africa. My girls have started getting really into soccer, they both play. Now I'll be able to take them to the colosseum. Starting the next generation of City fans.

Cooper deffo deserves some recognition by the club. Maybe we should start a petition. 

COYR

Link to comment
Share on other sites
steviestevieneville

steviestevieneville

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, DaveInSA said:

Aaaah the glory days....

...I can vividly remember starting my BCFC journey in 82-83. My Uncle started taking me and my brother. He'd just had a stroke and he'd park on a double yellow. We'd buy our tickets and head up to the Dolman - a bit slowly because his left side was pretty paralysed. On the odd occasion we'd get taken into the East End by our cousin. Urine on the terraces, beer everywhere, dark, dingy and the atmosphere in there was awesome.

4 to 5 thousand in that massive arena, they were dark days, but also great days. Andy Llewyellyn and Rob Newman at the back were absolute stalwarts for this club, with John Shaw. And obviously Walshy and Riley were my heroes. 

The life long love affair started right there. I still don't understand (and I guess never will) how you can claim to be a fan of a club if you've never, ever been to a game. How much fun can it be being a Man Utd fan? Winning a virtual guarantee (well I guess the last couple of years haven't been so lekker) every *******g week. No low points of relegations, disappointments, losing games on paper you should win easily and vice versa.

I guess this is why we are Bristol City. Always believing and hoping that we'll start to punch above our weight. Maybe, just maybe we're on the verge of something great. I'll reserve judgement though, because I've been there many times following this club.

I'm heading back to the UK after 15 years in South Africa. My girls have started getting really into soccer, they both play. Now I'll be able to take them to the colosseum. Starting the next generation of City fans.

Cooper deffo deserves some recognition by the club. Maybe we should start a petition. 

COYR

Totally agree . Think I'll start by emailing and tweeting the relevant people . See what feedback we get. Maybe the dolman concourse could be named after him with just a sign up for him. Something the fans can relate too 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DaveInSA

DaveInSA

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, steviestevieneville said:

Totally agree . Think I'll start by emailing and tweeting the relevant people . See what feedback we get. Maybe the dolman concourse could be named after him with just a sign up for him. Something the fans can relate too 

I'm @davebaxtersa on the twitter - happy to retweet anything that comes my way...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Redderland

Redderland

Posted
Posted

I was the researcher at HTV for most of the Flashbacks - possibly the best job I ever had. Met Terry and Norman and other heroes and spent hours rescuing clips of film from the HTV library. When matches were shot on film it meant that every time a programme needed a particular clip, like a goal, the actual film got trimmed until some of them were just tiny little strips. Putting together the goals from the heroic end of our first season in the 1st Division was almost impossible even by the time we made these Flashbacks. I remember an early interview with Terry when he came in as manager and he described (laughing) how the first thing he had to teach the players was where to boot the ball out of defence. He is a lovely man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
NickJ

NickJ

Posted
Posted

Best manager we ever had, simple as that. Difficult to imagine anyone around from '82 onwards would disagree that the man is a legend.

A 4th division promotion and a second tier cup win doesn't tell half the story of what Coops achieved at Bristol City.

When he was sacked I phoned Ashton Gate and tore into the poor woman who answered the phone, she promised to pass my complaint on to the directors!

Probably it was for the best though, the man must have been exhausted and emotionally drained from the effort and hard work he put into our football club.

After he gave up the cameo sub appearances for City, but was still City manager, he used to play Sunday morning football, can remember playing against him and his son Mark who was 16 at the time.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
GrahamC

GrahamC

Posted
Posted
46 minutes ago, Loon plage said:

Also, when you consider he was a truly world class player for Leeds and England and acheived so much in the game, to put that much effort into City when we were at our lowest ebb shows what a man he is.

I agree, the club should recognise his contribution to our history.

That is an excellent, but largely forgotten point.

When Gordon Banks makes what is seen as the best save ever from Pele's header, it is Coops that Jairzinho pisses past to put the cross in.

That was the level of player he was on the same pitch as at his very best.

To think he was managing players in his first season with us who were Western League standard shows just how much he cared and loved football.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
john shaw number 1

john shaw number 1

Posted
Posted

Great manager, ticket seller, city shop assent with Beryl, can remember the 7-1 hiding at Northampton, Sat by the park wall after a coach journey that felt it was never going to end, Terry stoped and said how sorry he was for performance, even gave me and my mate a lift back to the Lord Nelson Cleeve so we could drown our sorrows, to me Chester away and promation in front of 3,000 cider heads was the crowning moment for him

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Floatn Over

Floatn Over

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, steviestevieneville said:

Totally agree . Think I'll start by emailing and tweeting the relevant people . See what feedback we get. Maybe the dolman concourse could be named after him with just a sign up for him. Something the fans can relate too 

With Alan Dicks and TC iconic managers (Div 1 and saving the club on the field respectively) something along the lines of Marina Dolman Way perhaps ?

Alan Dicks Rd, for the Ashton Rd entrance leading to the corner of the Dolman & Atyeo; Terry Cooper Courtyard for the back of the Atyeo ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Southstandoriginal

Southstandoriginal

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Hampshire reds said:

Great post.  Coops was brillant for us. Without him I dread to think where we would be today. I would love it if the club called the south stand the terry Cooper stand. And try and get him over to  a match.  the last i read he was Not very well. 

Great shout. Let's hope the club do something while the man can still appreciate it, not leave it too late like they did with Big John.  While we're at it, Alan Dicks deserves some official recognition too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheesleywalksoncider

cheesleywalksoncider

Posted
Posted

Enjoyed watching that. As many have said, Cooper did so much for City in a period when the future looked pretty bleak. 

Watching the Freight Rover Trophy final brought back some great memories. I caught double-decker bus from the Park House on St Johns Lane with my dad, uncle and cousin; it seemed to go about 50 mph and take an age to get there, but a great day out.

Agree the club should recognise what Cooper did in that era, it seems worlds apart from the Ashton Gate I know now. But without Cooper, we would have struggled, he put a great team together and got us through a tough time.

Well done and thanks, Terry Cooper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...